The following happened earlier in the week. I'm only writing about it now because the ordeal is over, and I can laugh about it.

Friends of mine bought a Sailboat (a MacGregor hybrid) in Santa Cruz this past Sunday. The wife called me on Tuesday before noon to ask for a favor: her husband wanted to motor the boat back from Santa Cruz to Monterey across the bay. But she didn't want him to go out alone so she asked if I wouldn't mind to give them a ride to Santa Cruz. That way they can all sail back in the boat together. Of course I don't mind! So I dropped them off in Santa Cruz in the early afternoon.

A little after 4:00 pm, I got a call from her: they didn't get far out in the bay and had to turn back because the water was too choppy. Anyway they needed a ride back from Santa Cruz. Sure, no problem. Since it was getting close to the end of work-day, I decided to give my husband a call--he was very curious about the boat and he hadn't had a chance to see it yet. I thought it would be perfect to let him go and pick our friends up instead. So I gave him the direction to Santa Cruz harbor, and happily he went on his way.

Hubby called again around 7:00 pm to ask me to set the temperature for the hot tub so he could use it after he got back. Okay, I did that and went about doing my stuff around the house.

The next thing I knew, my friend called. She asked me if I had heard from my husband. Uhm, yeah?

"When did he call, is he all right?" She wanted to know. I looked at my watch, and realized it was after 9:00 pm already.

"Well, he called around 2 hours ago and I thought he was on his way home. Uhm, where are you, why aren't you with him, and why wouldn't he be alright..." I was confused.

"Oh, I'm still at the habor, and I'm standing at the dock..." She said.

"What?! You mean [he] never showed up?!" I almost shouted.

"Oh, he showed up alright!" ::Huh?!:: "...And your husband convinced [my husband] that they should motor the boat back to Monterey by themselves tonight. So they took off awhile ago. But now their engine has died, and the power all went out. The waves are really bad out there, and both of them are terribly sick!" It all came out of her in a rush.

... ...

"...Haha, that was a good one, girlfriend. You are kidding me, right?" I laughed.

"NO! I'm not making this up. They are really stuck out there. I've been trying to call everyone I can think of for the past hour to go out there and get them!"

"But...but... you guys had to turn back in the afternoon because it was too dangerous to go out. What made these two guys think they could do better at night?!" #@!$%&*

"Yeah, I know. They said the water was much calmer at night. I tried to tell them it may look calm close to shore, but it could be a different story out there. But they wouldn't listen. They thought they could do it." My friend explained.

"ARGH!!! The male testosterone!" I couldn't believe it--each one of them alone, they would not have dared, put them together, they think they could conquer the world! <<insert expletives here>> "What made [your husband] think he should even listen to, let alone take advice from a guy knew nothing about sailing?! The only sailing [my husband] had ever done was to get on one of those big cruise ships and cruise around Caribbean!" I was totally freaked out and furious beyond words.

My friend told me she called the Coast Guard first. But apparently, there was a big accident in Moss Landing that night, and all the Coast Guards in Santa Cruz had rushed there to help. It would be hours before any of them could get to our husbands. (Incidentally, I heard on the radio on my way to work the next morning that there was a Commercial Whale-Watching boat caught on fire off the coast of Moss Landing. All the Coast Guards around the area and many other private rescue boats had to rush there to get people off the burning boat--talk about luck!)

My friend said she had called, yelled, and threatened at many people for the past hour to finally get one private towing company to go out there and look for our stranded husbands. She even called the guy she bought the boat from to ask questions. She said she was assured from various people that the boat is good enough it probably was safe from being capsized. Mmm... that did make me feel better.

My friend finally called me after she saw the rescue boat left the dock. But she was worried they went off in the wrong direction, and she hasn't heard from the guys for a while, so she wondered if any one of them had contacted me (Lucky for them that they did have one cell phone that still worked.)

So I hung up the call with my friend, and dialed hubby's cell phone instead. My girlfriend's husband came on the line. He sounded *terrible*. I asked to speak to [my husband], but hubby wouldn't get on the phone. All I heard was this terrible moaning in the background. Stay calm. I had to tell myself. I told my girlfriend's husband that the rescue boat was on the way. But they needed to set off a flare so rescuer would know where they were.

After that, my girlfriend and I could do nothing but wait. At one point, I even contemplated hopping in the car with my son and drove up to Santa Cruz. But I decided it was pointless because my girlfriend had already had the situation under control over there. I told her thank goodness she never left the dock. She said right after the guys sailed off, [my husband] called her and told her to drive my van back to Monterey. But somehow, she had an intuition, and refused to leave Santa Cruz Harbor just yet. Sure enough, less than an hour later she got the call from my husband that they had ran into trouble (the "funny" thing was: whenever she called them, my husband would answer the phone, and whenever I called, her husband would pick up the phone instead!)

Anyway, it wasn't until past 11:00 pm, the guys were towed back to the dock at Santa Cruz. Phew... Then when hubby finally made his way home 2 -3 hours later, I didn't know if I should throttle him or hug him.

The lesson I learned that night? -- I have a moronic husband, and a cool girlfriend! I can't imagine what she went through during the hour before she called me. I know I would've panicked, but she didn't. She handled the situation and found a solution all by herself before she let me know what was going on.

Edited to Add: After chatting with my girlfriend over the weekend, I found out a bit more details on that night:

Apparently, I was a little off on the time those two guys were towed back to the dock--it was closer to 12:00 midnight.

My friend's husband told me that he was so sick he didn't even quite remember how to shoot the flare. He pulled the top off and expected the flare would go off, but nothing happened. As he was examining the darn thing, he noticed the towing boat was approaching. "Screw it," he threw the flare aside, gave up figuring how to light the flare. Heh, the rescue boat went in the right direction after all.

My friend told me that she had sent a mechanic to take a look at the engine later in the week. He reported back that nothing was wrong with the engine. It wouldn't restart because the transmission was at the "Drive" position--you can't start a car while it was on "Drive", similarly, you can't start a boat either.

The reason the boat stopped in the first place was because they needed to switch gas tank. However, the tank was apparently put in backwards (it was so dark out there, it was impossible to see clearly)!

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Comments

Oh, no! What an ordeal! I'm just relieved to hear that they were both all right. How stressful for you and your friend, it's so difficult when you can't do anything to resolve the situation but wait. It's very lucky your friend stayed at the dock and coped with the situation so well.Maybe the experience will put your husband off sailing for a while!

You are exactly right: it was pretty terrible that I was so very worried but I could do nothing. But I imagine it was 10 times worse for my friend because she had to deal with it from the beginning.

I'm not sure if my husband was put off on sailing though. He's still pretty much eager to go out on the boat. Now that he's safe, he still thinks they might be able to do it had they done things differently (see my added info up above).

Oh, X, that's so scary. It must have been a very terrible situation for you, just being able to wait at home and not able to do anything to help. I'm glad both your hubby and your girlfriend's husband weren't hurt.

It really is kinda funny what you said about them picking up the other one's phone whenever you called. Men can be chicken sometimes, can't they? ;o) They have no problems taking the sailing boat out in bad weather (definitely a male testosterone based decision), but they are too afraid to talk to their wives.

I'm glad they are both save now and hopefully they have enough of sailing for a while.

It really is kinda funny what you said about them picking up the other one's phone whenever you called. Men can be chicken sometimes, can't they? ;o) They have no problems taking the sailing boat out in bad weather (definitely a male testosterone based decision), but they are too afraid to talk to their wives.

Hehe, well said!

I'm glad they are both save now and hopefully they have enough of sailing for a while.

Alas, both men are eager to sail as much as ever. In fact, my friend and her husband just went out sailing yesterday, and they had a lovely time! Although my friend's husband said he won't go out at night for a long long time!